Sentences with phrase «white dwarfs reach»

White dwarfs reach this incredible density because they are so collapsed that their electrons are smashed together, forming what is called «degenerate matter.»

Professor Mould and his PhD student Syed Uddin at the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and the ARC Centre of Excellence for All - sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) assumed that these supernova explosions happen when a white dwarf reaches a critical mass or after colliding with other stars to «tip it over the edge».

Not exact matches

[3] Type Ia Supernovae occur when an accreting white dwarf in a binary star system slowly gains mass from its companion until it reaches a limit that triggers the nuclear fusion of carbon.

The spacecraft's telescopes are sensitive to radiation from the hot outer atmospheres of stars like the Sun and white dwarfs, formed when stars about the size of the Sun reach the end of their lives.

In this theory material from the companion star is accreted onto the white dwarf until its mass reaches a limit, leading to a dramatic explosion.

Both occur in systems where two stars orbit each other: a white dwarf sucks away the outer layers of a larger companion star until the smaller star reaches a critical mass, causing an explosion.

At the age of 20, when most college sophomores are still picking their majors, Harvard student Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar proved that white dwarf stars would explode after reaching a mass 1.4 times that of our sun.

If the white dwarf accretes enough material to reach the Chandrasekhar limit, the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star (1.4 solar mass), it will likely explode as a Type Ia supernova.

Its age is estimated to be about a billion years, so the next evolutionary stage it will reach is Mira - type variable before it turns into a white dwarf.

Across the room and up the museum's sweeping staircase, a harder - edged artwork of towering black - and - white text by Barbara Kruger reaches to the ceiling, dwarfing Blake's hut.